Tuesday, December 21, 2010

OK, so there was a Christmas concert up in hamilton... Orchestra, kids choir... this is boring, the better concert is the second one.

one of the girls in the kids choir had HUGE hair.

and it was cute, so I made a character out of her hair. I think she probably lives down the street from sour berries kid.

So then there was a WALK THE MOON CONCERT AT THE MAD HATTER. An UGLY (or just misunderstood) SWEATER PARTY. and it was CRAZY fun. and I'm sorry for my handwriting; that's what happens when it's dark. Painted under my sketches in photoshop.

Everybody and the WTM dudes were sweaterfied...

Especially Sean. Kevin's sweater may have been pink, but Sean's had cats AND flowers. WIN.

the videos I took at that show are uploading AS I TYPE THIS. I got WTM's album at the show, as well as an EP by The Pass - love 'em both! Music is a wonderful thing.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

So I showed these drawings to my Professor to make sure they were within the assignment boundaries, and he said "yes, but I wish you had more full-body studies and gestures." That was when I realized.... I should probably just stop watching Peter Jackson films for the rest of the quarter. :)

Here, have a hand, too. It's not going anywhere.

I'll have some o' those full-body type gestures up next. Donald O'Connor, anyone?...

Sunday, December 12, 2010

and a manic insomniac greaser dude named Neem. why Neem? it's fun to say. tried a color scheme for him in photoshop, looks pretty good:

and last for the moment, a collection of faces from around Montgomery Hall. Most on this page are from Jason Maurer's awesome Senior 2 class. :) (even more awesome now that it's finished!)

MORE IS COMING... BEWAREY. Random notes:

The Pass and Eat Sugar are two bands playing with Walk the Moon at the UGLY SWEATER show down at the Mad Hatter Saturday. AWESOME LOCAL BANDS YO! Check 'em out! If not in person, at least on their web-o-sites. :D

Thursday, December 9, 2010

A UNICORN. A unicorn with a big butt! I found an old mix CD a friend made for me back in 2005 today, and it has the unicorns on it. they make me happy. :D

so, this random drawing is dedicated to the animation club at Walnut Hills HS. you guys were so fun!!! It's a usual thing for people to not know what I'm talking about, but it's unusual for them to actually be interested. YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!

SO, I've still got sketches from Webber's sketchbook to scan. I left Savannah before Thanksgiving, but it was only 5 days ago that I got to Cincinnati to stay (for the next month). Been rambling around Indianapolis and Chicago. I've gotten my computer set up now, but the pickle-scanner's still in it's box. that will be remedied this weekend.

I'm working for Plow Digital this month! I'm a temp/freelancer/intern to help them finish animation on one of their current projects - a Facebook game. I animated an awesome waterfall for it last week. My supervisor said "that's way cooler than what they're paying for". harhar.

Monday, November 15, 2010

OK dudes, the quarter is ALMOST OVER! I'll be getting my sketchbook back from Webber later today, so I'll have a METRIC TONNE (OK maybe not) of sketches to scan and upload; realistically not til after thanksgiving, but you never know.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

The first emotion that I felt when The Illusionist ended and the credits began to roll was pure awe.It’s been a long time since I’ve been so impressed with the maturity and beauty of a film (animated or no).The second emotion was depression.It’s difficult to believe that I’ll ever be able to animate with such control, beauty and finesse.Maybe I’ll just draw comic books instead.

The most impressive thing to me about the film is the visual style and execution of it.The backgrounds looked to be drawn in ink and then painted with watercolor; I assume with the ink and different watercolor treatments on separate levels.Watching the time of day or the sunlight change over the different locales the Illusionist and Alice visit made me catch my breath a few times.The animation itself could be described with a lot of the same words as the backgrounds – very subtle, with attention to detail, and enviable control.No movement is wasted with any of the characters – every movement that they make has something to do with that character’s personality.

Because The Illusionist has such a quiet story, it allows for humor at things much more subtle than outright jokes.Indeed, since the actual dialogue in the film is so minimal, there ARE no actual jokes.All of the comedy lies in the situations the characters find themselves in, and in the eccentricities of the characters themselves; and though the ending of the film is somber, it is a story with an unexpected amount of humor.

The scene that stands out the most to me for humor and suspense is more than halfway through the film.The Illusionist has just returned from a rather harrowing night attempting to be a garage hand.When he gets back to the hotel room that he and Alice share, she has dinner ready (prepared from a cook book lent to her by one of the hotel’s other eccentric inhabitants).Alice has made enough to serve several of her friends of the hotel, and is constantly going in and out of the room with bowls to take up to them.In one moment when she is gone, a breeze from the window blows the pages of her cookbook, and the pages rest on a recipe involving rabbit.The Illusionist – and we – are left in suspense for the magician’s rabbit; naturally he is loathe to eating his soup, and his worry and searching for the rabbit every time Alice is gone is just wonderful comedy.The timing of this scene – and all in silence! – is just perfect.

The overall story is such a difference from the majority of American animation!Probably due to it having been written in a much more subtle era of film.The majority of American animated features are a joke every other minute.This film’s story was so quiet, it allowed for attention to detail and humor in the smallest things.It also gave time to just marvel at the gorgeous artwork; to breathe and just LOOK.Some of the most memorable scenes were actually subplots with side characters – I don’t know if these little vignettes were in Tati’s script, but whoever is responsible for them did a wonderful job.

All of the animation for my senior film.... is hereby FINISHED. *cockroach under my desk tries to chirp like a cricket and fails*. This has, in terms of workload/sleep deprivation, been my worst quarter at SCAD thus far, but it is almost over! With my senior film finished, I have only to take Craig's portfolio/reel/website/everything else class next quarter and I will be finished with my major. With that, I have three classes left to my Sequential Art minor and I will be, ladies and gentlemen, a SCAD alum. *cockroach scurries away under the bookshelf*.

If anyone is still around to read this after all the neglect this blog has gotten the past couple months, here's a doodly doodle of a girl who could possibly be named Anna Sun, after that Walk the Moon song.

Speaking of which, people, Walk the Moon's album release party is THIS SATURDAY. if you are anywhere near the Cincinnati area, you should totally go. They are the epitome of awesome, especially Nick, because I said so. Info about that show is heeyah.

Last week I had the immense privilege of seeing a TON of awesome moving pictures at the Savannah Film Festival; one of the biggest highlights for me being Sylvain Chomet's new film The Illusionist. It will be released in New York and LA sometime in December to qualify for the Oscar, but it is also screening at CTN Expo next week so maybe it's got a few more gigs around the country as well; I don't know. either way, it's a GORGEOUS film (by Sylvain Chomet, it's impossible to not be gorgeous). if you have a chance to see it, please do. I wrote a review of it after the screening, and will post that up here in a little bit.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

I need a haircut. Drawn in my little sketchbook... upside down. because I am a genius. Stanford Non-photo blue/Prisma Col-Erase pencil. Ignore the paint blotches; they're from me slapping some not-quite-dry watercolor doodles on my scanner for a project for Walk the Moon.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Sunday, September 12, 2010

I feel like I haven't been in school for a year, but it's only been 6 months. I guess because it's been an eventful 6 months. At any rate, I start back tomorrow with 2D character animation I, Senior Project 2, and history of animation (which I've been saving for YEARS to take during senior 2).

Back in 2007, as a project for a photoshop class, I used Gail Carson Levine's book The Two Princesses of Bamarre as basis for a bunch of character designs and such. so, here's a BLAST FROM THE PAST!!!some of these are ok, and some I still love, but some make me wince. :)

Friday, September 3, 2010

It's September 3 already. Time sure flies when you don't want it to. :P

Animation is moving along for The Story Ship; I've finished cleaning and coloring one scene and compositing another, but I'll have to get permission from my boss to post stuff here (and try and remember a good compression method so that I can actually upload the clips. :P)

Here's another spare-time monochrome Blanche doodle:

And now, a rant! I don't know what all music you listen to, dear reader, but I have noticed in the general populace of young adult America there is an acute lack of classical music. I'm not talking about movie soundtracks, here! I'm talking about instrumental music written for the sake of music. Like abstract painting just for the sake of color.

I don't like all classical music, but in general I do and I have a good group of favorite composers, and a ton of respect for ALL composers whether I like their music or not (probably stems somehow from growing up with 12 violins and 5 pianos in the house).

ANYhow. Here's some good stuff, I guarantee - music that is emotive and sounds like a story; my favorite kind. This is a list I put together for cleanup animation:

And none of it comes from a movie soundtrack, by gum! With the possible exception being Bernstein's symphonic dances; but really what Bernstein did with those was take the most prevalent themes from his musical West Side Story and rearrange them into a classical suite. picky, picky. :)